Approval rates
Comparing a judge's approval rate to office and national benchmarks helps provide context for your upcoming hearing. Judge Kallsnick currently holds a 61% lifetime approval rate, which is 3 percentage points higher than the national average of 58% but slightly below the latest Tulsa office average of 64%. These figures are derived from a significant docket of 2,249 lifetime decisions. Aggregate rates describe past decisions, not predictions for individual hearings.
Office- and national-level breakdowns of fully favorable vs denial rates aren't currently published by SSA in the per-office disposition data. The judge's own breakdown is the detail we have today.
Approval rate over time
Year-over-year approval rate across Judge Kallsnick's docket. Annual rates fluctuate with the mix of cases SSA assigns; the longer-run pattern is more informative than any single year.
Decision pattern
Throughout his 1 year on the bench, Judge Kallsnick has maintained a steady approval pattern. With 2,249 lifetime decisions, the data reflects a consistent approach to evaluating your disability claim. His career history shows stability across his time in the Tulsa office, where his approval rates have remained within a narrow margin. This trend suggests a predictable approach to evidence evaluation, and the latest period reflects a continuation of this steady pattern.
Preparing for an SSDI hearing
The guidance below applies to any SSDI hearing, not specifically to Judge Kallsnick's bench. Judge-specific preparation guidance requires a corpus of public Appeals Council decisions involving each judge, which we haven't built yet.
- Bring a clean treating-physician record. Longitudinal primary-care or specialist notes spanning the disability period, with consistent symptom documentation, are typically the strongest evidence at hearing. A single month's records usually aren't enough.
- Don't rely on consultative exams alone. If your medical evidence is built primarily around a one-time CE finding, expect detailed questioning. Supplement with treating-source statements where possible.
- Prepare for daily-activity questions. Have honest, specific answers about a typical day. Answers that conflict with the medical record (in either direction) tend to hurt credibility.
- Expect transferable-skills probing. A vocational expert will usually testify about jobs available to someone with your limitations. Your representative should be prepared to cross-examine.
Other judges at this hearing office
The Social Security Administration utilizes a workload-balancing algorithm to assign cases, meaning the judge you are assigned is essentially random. Within the Tulsa Hearing Office, lifetime approval rates among the bench vary significantly, ranging from 38% to 80%. Because each judge brings a unique perspective to the courtroom, understanding the office-wide environment is helpful. You can find more information on the Tulsa hearing office page.
Your odds change dramatically with a lawyer
Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-18-37. The 3× gap is a population-wide average across all judges; individual outcomes vary.